Believe it or not, the holidays are upon us. The weather is getting colder, the days, shorter, and everybody is hunkering down for the cold weather months–including our kids. Which can be troubling, especially if they don’t have much to do over the long holiday season. To beat cabin fever (and give yourself a nice break!) why not try channeling your kids’ energy into learning a new skill: computer science.
We all know computer science has changed our world forever. But...

Hopscotch is a block-based mobile programming application that helps kids easily build games and animated artwork - a visual programming language similar and based to Scratch. Through the process, kids can become familiar with coding fundamentals. Blocks are the favored way to learn to program from Harvard and MIT to Code.org and Google. Using blocks to learn coding logic and concepts before diving into the syntax of coding languages.
With Hopscotch, kids master core coding concepts, like loops, variables, and conditionals, that...

When I asked my nephew which toys his peers discuss on the playground, his response was rather illuminating.
"Kids like toys they can destroy, they can build, they can control," he said.
My nephew is 9. But he is on to something. U.S. toy sales grew by 6% from January through September 2016, with substantial growth in higher-priced items for drones and robotic toys. These are products you can indeed build, control, and destroy with a few remote-controlled buttons or the right...

Brilliant Labs has teamed up with New Brunswick’s department of education to bring an Hour of Code to New Brunswick schools for a week in December.
Brilliant Labs is a non-profit organization dedicated support creativity and entrepreneurial spirit in the youth of Atlantic Canada. They’re aiming to assist in New Brunswick Department of Education’s plan to improve literacy and numeracy skills by promoting the Hour of Code, which is a global movement that allows students to try an hour of coding...

Believe it or not, the holidays are upon us. The weather is getting colder, the days, shorter, and everybody is hunkering down for the cold weather months–including our kids. Which can be troubling, especially if they don’t have much to do over the long holiday season. To beat cabin fever (and give yourself a nice break!) why not try channeling your kids’ energy into learning a new skill: computer science.
We all know computer science has changed our world forever. But...

Toys that teach aren't a new thing, but a growing number are calling for kids to build with blocks, circuits or everyday items before reaching for a tablet screen.
Play is how kids learn about the world around them, whether it's a toddler throwing a ball or teens playing video games.
It's about seeing how things work and what happens when they do something.
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This photo provided by Osmo shows an Osmo Creative Set. Toys that teach...

As part of Code.org’s Hour of Code program, Disney is releasing “Moana: Wayfinding with Code,” a free online tutorial to teach kids the basics of computer science. The tutorial features characters from Moana, Disney’s upcoming animated feature film.In the past, the company has created coding tutorials featuring characters from Frozen and Star Wars. Through those sessions, Disney taught nearly 40 million kids the basics of computer programming. Disney says it hopes to reach even more this time around.
“The idea of...

Kibo is a great game and educational tool with unique control mode, which is very well support the children programming thinking. The only problem is the price, one full kits costs 399 USD.
KinderLab Robotics robot building and programming platform called Kibo that's designed for youngsters from 4 years and up. After customizing and personalizing a two-wheeled base unit, the kids can tell the robot what they want it to do by grabbing some colorful wooden blocks, putting them in order according...

Stencyl is a game creation platform enabling developers to design once and play anywhere across multiple platforms including iOS, Android, Flash, Windows, Mac and Linux without the need for code. The platform is recommended for children above 10.
Stencyl effectively works as a game studio in a box, providing an intuitive toolset to accelerate workflow.
The visual coding elements based on the MIT Scratch project. The software is available for free, with select publishing options available for purchase. The software was originally called "StencylWorks"...

How inspiring to hear on Thursday that the Queensland government is set to make coding and robotics compulsory subjects for even its youngest primary school students.
The decision has not made everyone happy, however, with one childhood development expert saying children need to be out playing rather than spending more time in front of screens.
Dr Michael Nagle told the ABC that children “engaging with technology may be doing more harm than good in terms of health”.
Certainly there are no health benefits,...

SO Queensland wants kids learning code from the age of four.
To help your child get ahead of the game, this might be just the toy to put under your Christmas tree.
Fisher-Price has launched the new Think & Learn Code-a-pillar.
It promises to teach children from three years to develop important skills like planning, sequencing and critical thinking.
Pre-schoolers can have fun arranging and rearranging the easy-to-connect segments in endless combinations, sending Code-a-pillar on his adventurous path.
Each segment lights up as the action...

This year at LinuxCon North America in Toronto, The Linux Foundation partnered with MakerKids and Kids on Computers to organize a day-long event focused on getting school-aged children interested in learning more about computer programming. The Kids Day workshops included projects around Linux, Arduino, robots, and more. “Kids on Computers has participated at SCALE and OSCON in years past, but this was our first time at LinuxCon. We do lot of hands-on training with students, teachers, and communities where we...

Posted: Thu 11:00 AM, Nov 17, 2016 |
Updated: Thu 6:04 PM, Nov 17, 2016
RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA TV) - America is hungry for computer programmers which, unfortunately, are in short supply. It is a problem Jason Bierle, a Canyon Lake Elementary School teacher, hopes to help solve.
Bierle introduces his fifth grade students to a possible career in computer coding.
“We're really excited to get kids into some coding this year,” Bierle said. “We think about it as this abstract...

Tech savvy: Ciara Brennan shows her fifth class students at St Peter's primary School in Bray, Co Wicklow - from left, Kayden Clucas (10), Dominik Bessler (10), Dylan Fitzpatrick (11), and Shannon Hopewell (10) - how to code
It has become an everyday activity for kids, like going to swimming classes, football practice or ballet lessons. Every week thousands of children go off to computer coding classes.
Their parents may hope that the programming clubs, often facilitated by the voluntary group...

Fresh from unveiling their awesome new Singapore campus, Google has also announced plans to roll out its ‘Code in the Community’ programme in 2017, which aims to teach around 3,000 kids from low-income homes coding skills over the next three years.
Working with local self-help groups like the Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC), Mendaki, Sinda and the Eurasian Association, the programme will target children aged 8 to 15 from needy homes, and will be a 10-week course conducted by non-profit organisation...

Bill Whelan wwhelan@wickedlocal.com @wvwhelan
A Lexington parent and his robot plan to change the way children learn to code.
Zivthan Dubrovsky, who runs the robotics lab at Harvard’s Wyss Institute, and his team have spent the better part of the last three years developing Root, a programmable robot that can crawl on whiteboards, draw, erase and play music. Dubrovsky sees Root as a way to bring the “wow factor” into programming, and to get kids, and even adults, excited about coding at...

Christmas gifts. Image: Guschenkova/Shutterstock
Knowledge of coding will soon become something of a prerequisite in many fields of work. So why not start kids off young? Coding gifts for Christmas are the way to go.
The countdown to Christmas is already upon us, with the difficulties behind buying people presents getting more difficult every year.
However, once you settle on a theme, things can get easier. So, if you’re buying for children who you suspect might enjoy learning how to code – the...

Image Credit: Code.org
Microsoft announced the next effort in a series of educational Minecraft products today: the Minecraft Hour of Code Designer, a free tutorial co-developed by Code.org that teaches students as young as six years old the basic problem-solving and critical thinking skills that underly programming.
Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi.
The program was created for the Hour of Code, an annual campaign that takes place during Computer Science week from Dec. 5-11 and encourages young students and educators to spend an hour...

Cozmo is a real-life robot like you've only seen in movies, with a one-of-a-kind personality that evolves the more you hang out.
Cozmo expresses real emotions in response to your actions. Unlike some other STEM-friendly robot kits, the Cozmo isn't a thing you build or program (yet). It's more of an AI work in progress and a demonstration of personality. And it's definitely a toy you can play games with.
Requires a free app and the processing power of your compatible mobile...

Julian Hall who works as a field controls engineer also mentors children at the Bendigo CoderDojo.
A new coding club for children in Bendigo uses volunteer mentors to assist with learning.
When field controls engineer Julian Hall is not analysing data from tractors and developing control algorithms in calibrating farm vehicles, he mentors young children, including his seven-year-old son, at CoderDojo Bendigo.
"I'm happy to help with any skills that I can for kids," Mr Hall said.
He said the coding club was a...

Nine-year-old Reid Stainbrook is already an old pro at using a 3-D printer after only a few hours of working with it.
He’s grown comfortable with the technology at the Spark16150 lab at Arbor Creek Elementary in Olathe.
“It’s probably one of the easiest things” in the lab, Reid said.
His next project? To make a plastic tennis ball that won’t break when he uses it to play with his dog.
Nearby, 9-year-old Colin Johnson was using special building blocks called Cubelets to make...

Xiaomi Mi Bunny Robot is an interactive building block robotics kit that empowers children/teenagers to create and program their own robots. With 978 accessories, you can make anything you can imagine.
The robot can be assembled in different shapes (much like how a lego-building works), but what stands as the high point of the toy robot is that it will be controllable through an app. The robot will come in a kit, which will comprise of various components like wheels, gears...

Saturday 5 November 2016
Learning to code can be challenging, but Fab Lab wants to showcase technology that can get kids involved. For almost three years, it has been running a startup space helping companies prototype, programme and build innovative devices.
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At WIRED Next Generation, Fab Lab brought along a self-driving robot to teach kids to code. The 'ozobot' follows black lines on a complex map, and in order to get it to the end, stickers must be placed in a particular...

There's a new kid in school with flashing eyes who is a friend, a teacher and a superb dancer.
The 58-centimetre robot is called Nao and promises to revolutionise the way students learn.
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Meet the robots entering Aussie schools
As well as sparking student interest in coding and robotics, robots like Rosie can hold flashcards to improve their vocabulary and teach mathematical concepts.
It's the latest educational toy schools are rushing to buy – if they can afford the...

However Blockly recommended for developers, due its intuitive graphical interface is well suited to the development of children's programming capabilities.
Blockly is designed to easily install into your web application. Users drag blocks around, Blockly generates code, your application does something with that code. From your application's point of view Blockly is just a textarea in which the user types syntactically perfect JavaScript, Python, PHP, Lua, Dart, or other language.
Blockly is library that adds a visual code editor to web and Android...

There is a huge IT skills gap. Currently, the lack of digital skills in the UK is estimated to cost the economy £63 billion a year in lost additional GDP.
It is clear that the next generation are speeding ahead in their digital abilities. Computing was introduced to the UK school curriculum in 2014, helping children learn about coding and computational thinking; this year, Computing GCSE entries increased by 76%.
But there is still so much more to be done to help...

General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt recently declared that young employees joining the company would learn to code, even if they worked in non-IT areas, such as finance and operations. A recent survey by Burning Glass Technology and Oracle Academy revealed that half of high-paying jobs require coding skills, and these aren’t just IT jobs. That raises the questions: Does everyone need to learn this skill, and should parents rush to find programs to teach kids to code?
At least for now,...

Twin Tin Bot is a funny education tools, but the concept is somehow similar to previous games (for example Roborally)
In Twin Tin Bots many corporations have invested in crystal mining after they were discovered as a potent energy source. They designed and improved robots to harvest crystals and a few people can now run a big crystal harvesting rig. Many teams work on the same harvesting plant, but the game's always on to bring more crystals back than the others.
In the...

RoboRally now classic tactical game with different levels of difficulty and game board cool robots.
RoboRally is a board game originally published in 1994 by Wizards of the Coast (WotC). It was designed in 1985 by Richard Garfield, who would later create the card game Magic: The Gathering. The game and its expansions received a total of four Origins Awards. RoboRally was rereleased in July 2005 under the Avalon Hill label.
In RoboRally, players assume control of one of many "Robot Control...

Image: Vengit Ltd/SBrickWith only a few days left in its Kickstarter campaign, SBrick Plus is fully funded and will be available to ship worldwide in December 2016. Similar to the Mindstorm LEGO kits in that it is a programmable interlocking block product, SBrick distinguishes itself from the international product by working with various coding platforms instead of just the LEGO programming language. However, with this in mind, it is still compatible with the brand name toys.Despite not having product available...

Every year, the Toy Insider panel of experts chooses the hottest toys for the upcoming holiday season. And these typically are the most in-demand playthings for kids all year long. Twenty of the toys are the must-have items on kids of all ages’ wish lists, whether they’re based on favorite TV shows or movie characters or they’re simply selling out in stores. Twelve of the tech-based toys incorporate the latest in digital play, creativity and innovation, while 10 are based...

Wonder Workshop, maker of robots Dash and Dot that use coding skills to make them move, light up, dance and speak, is launching its second national ad campaign to coincide with the holiday season.Developed with agency Hub Strategy and Communications, the creative centers on the concept of the Tiger Mom, a parent who pushes her child to excel academically above all else. In one spot, an ambitious mom brags about her child's coding skills learned in Switzerland while her friend...

The feedback on our debut column has been encouraging due to the emotive topic on patents that resonated with local innovative minds that felt bullied in glass offices around the country.
innovators’ hub with John Mokwetsi
There is plenty of untapped learning potential of technology in Zimbabwe
At a later date I will revisit this topic and zoom on what one can do to keep their ideas from intellectual property thieves. Most of the readers of Innovation’s Hub wrote to us and tweeted...

Kodu is a 3D game building environment. If you have ever wondered how to make an Xbox type game, Kodu is a great place to start. Lets kids aged 6 to 10 create games on the PC and Xbox via a simple visual programming language. Kodu can be used to teach creativity, problem solving, storytelling, as well as programming. Anyone can use Kodu to make a game, young children as well as adults with no design or programming skills. The...

Shortly after launching its annual holiday gift guide earlier this month, The Toy Insider has followed up with a look at top trends that are expected to influence purchases this festive buying season, as well as into the early months of 2017.
The Toy Insider, which is a well-known U.S.-based publication providing caregivers with in-depth reviews of toys and other youth products, highlighted six significant trends. (Several echo those seen at the 2016 North American Toy Fair last February.)
Co-publisher and spokesman...

A new collaboration between a local business and the Summit School District that could land future graduates careers as the next generation of software engineers in Silicon Valley, financial analysts on Wall Street or rocket scientists at NASA is quickly taking off.
This fall, Frisco and Summit Cove elementary schools devised a new computer-coding elective a year after the successful launch of a pilot club at Frisco for the tech-driven coursework. Today, through funding and support from the Education Foundation of...

Research shows that there are over 6 million jobs in the tech industry and in 2015 alone, 200,000 more jobs were added. Technology and engineering are also included in the list of top paying college majors and the jobs pay good, very good. If you already know how to code, well and good, if you don't know yet, perhaps the number of jobs and the big salaries will be a good motivation.
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The good news is that you don't necessarily need...

Montana Code Girls Logo
We are excited to be expanding Montana Code Girls to Butte and bringing high tech after-school programs for girls to the community.
Butte, MT (PRWEB) October 27, 2016
Big Sky Code Academy, a Code.org Preferred Learning Partner and the leader in immersive coding boot camps across the state of Montana, and the Butte-Silver Bow Public Library today announced a partnership to bring the Montana Code Girls program to Butte’s young girls. Montana Code Girls is a year-long free after-school...

What do children ages 0-11 think about? You might be surprised to learn it, but terrorism, parents’ employment and school safety fall under the list of concerns for these little ones, according to Nickelodeon’s “The Story of Me” presentation made to partners and press in NYC Thursday am. “So much is changing in their lives. And the pace of changing is awe inspiring. No other generation is impacted at such a dramatic change… almost on a daily basis,” said svp...